Game after the jump.
I was playing my mixed approach Makeda 3 list:
Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Aradus Sentinel (8pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Orin Midwinter (2pts)
I like this list a lot. It's reasonably fast and hard-hitting, and it plays to Makeda's strengths.
My opponent, Todd, played eKromac's new theme force,
Kromac, Champion of the Wurm (*4pts) - Blood Price Tier 3
*
*3 Goraxes (9pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Bloodweaver Night Witch (2pts)
His list actually is painted up like a dog race, with all the Argi numbered (convenient!). I wish I had pictures, but either my phone was out of power or I got distracted and didn't take any. Anyway, this list is a good 16pts up on me, so it'll be interesting to see if my heavy armor and Makeda's general toughness can push through. Jamming with Spd 7 Def 15 light Warbeasts seems good for scenario play, and the Argi will autohit with Pow 20 Combo Strikes between Kromac's Feat and Primal. After the Feat turn, armor becomes a lot harder for this list - we'll see how it goes.
On to the game. We played Incursion: 3 flags in the middle of the board. Control or dominate any flag for 1pt.
Todd won the roll, and decided to go first. He deployed in a huge line of dogs, with Kromac and the Goraxes in the middle, and the Shifting Stones just up ahead. The Night Witch went on one flank.
I deployed in a pretty standard brick with the Sentinel ahead of Makeda.
Round 1
Todd ran up very quickly. I advanced more conservatively with Vortex of Destruction up, and the Agonizer going. I was going to take some charges, but I was trying to limit the damage here.
Round 2
Todd got some charges off, and killed the Brute and Aradus. :( There was plenty of Primal on the table, so there would be plenty of Frenzies next turn.
I tried to kill those dogs, but I made some mistakes (not having as much Paralytic Aura coverage as I needed, as well as some activation order problems), and got some really terrible dice (the Bronzeback could not roll a 6 to save its life. Molik couldn't roll an 8 whether he boosted or not). In the end, I got a couple of them, but nowhere near enough, and I hadn't made very much space for myself either.
Round 3
Todd decided to jam me with dogs, and go for scenario. He did a little more damage, but without the Feat and Combo Strike, he wasn't breaking a lot of Armor. He did score 2pts though.
I countered as best I could, and managed to clear one flag and contest the other two so he didn't score in my turn. I killed a few more dogs, but there were already more dogs on the way.
Round 4
Todd got Kromac onto an empty flag on the sides, killed the Krea, jammed me hard with the rest of his dogs, and scored another point.
I could not contest Kromac's flag with anything other than Makeda, and she couldn't contest, so I killed another Argus or two mostly out of spite, then conceded, since he'd score again on my turn, and win on his turn.
Victory to the Circle!
Thoughts
That was an interesting game, and a lot of fun to play. It's definitely a skew list I'll need to watch out for in the future. I made a couple mistakes, and had some bad luck, but this fight was really uphill for my list. The combination of so many fast, high-Def light beasts, and a spread out scenario meant I was scrabbling for ideas from the start. I do think if I'd played better, I might have pulled through. I wound up going up the middle, and trying to contest all flags while attritioning Todd's list, but there were too many Argi, and they took too much effort to kill. I might have done better to try to clear one side of the table, and make the fight over the center flag where his trouble dealing with my armor might have forced Kromac into Molik's threat range or given me a chance to pull out a scenario win.
This game is also what had me going over what I could do to get Locker into my Makeda 3 list, since a Sentry with Locker up wouldn't have been killed by the one Argus that could get to it. Otherwise, Circle is probably a matchup for my other list to wrangle. Between this kind of thing and eKrueger, I'd probably be better off with whoever Makeda's partner turns out to be.
Todd played a good game. After my lackluster counter on turn 2, he knew he had a very good chance at scenario, and he went for it. The Argi did well, and I the list in general plays quickly, and has very tough jam. It wouldn't be so strong against an opponent with a good attack buff for infantry, since the Argi aren't hard to take out - if you can hit them.
If any of you has any thoughts about tackling this list, let me know. I'm looking forward to a rematch (which hasn't happened yet) and I'll need all the secret anti-dog tech I can find.
Thanks for reading!
I agree mate, I think you need another list to tackle that build. In fact I think mak3 needs to be paired with something which can play incursion better than she can. Maybe a Zaal or Mordikaar, something with a lot of bodies. I really don't understand why PP give light warbeasrs discounts in theme forces. Imagine if skorne had 3 point drakes?
ReplyDeleteHa! That's pretty much where my mind goes every time I see a theme force like this. Drake spam is strong enough at 4pts. At 3 it would be a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteIncursion is definitely rough on Makeda 3. eZaal has been fantastic in my games so far, so I'll probably take him to Adepticon. Incursion doesn't bother him. I'm sticking with ADR this season, mostly because I really like the idea of tailoring my Mak3 list to handle all the matchups she'd be fine with if she had the right pieces in her list.
Thanks for the comments!